The next iteration of Android is on its way in the form of Android 8.0. While only 2 percent of existing Android users have migrated onto the Nougat platform, Google has still continued to progress with its next generation Android software, that could be named Oreo. Thanks to a few leaks, we now know a few of the new features it might come packed with.
Copy Less
“Copy less” is meant to be a convenience for users who would like to copy and paste information from one source, and onto their text in an easier manner so that the user will not need to edit out the irrelevant bits. For example, if the user is texting someone about a place and its address, the user can copy the address, which will be analysed by the GBoard and if the user simply types “the location is at”, a pop up with the direction details will be shown with all the unnecessary bits removed and all the user will need to do is just paste it in the text and send it across, supposedly saving time in the process. It seems like a doable aspect, it remains to be seen whether the it will be applicable for other forms of information as well that need to be copied.
Location Mapping
Much like when a phone number is being typed out in a text and users can tap on it to go to the phonebook or the caller app, similarly, the same will work for addresses now. If an address is provided in text and the user taps on it, it will be able to take the user to Google Maps and show them the address. It’s a pretty helpful feature and it seems like it was borrowed from the iPhone as this feature was first part of iOS long before its inception on Android. It’s still a good feature to have.
Gestures
Google is baking-in gesture usage into their new OS so that it can draw up apps or do actions with a few swipes of the user’s finger on the screen. An example such as drawing up the contacts when someone gestures a ‘C’ on the screen will be a possibility. This is not anything new and has already been implemented in a lot of different phones and manufacturers over the years, most notably with OnePlus and Huawei of late. Nothing ground-breaking here, but still pretty useful. How different it will look in the final build, depends on how innovatively the company can configure the gestures. This feature apparently may or may not make it in the final build, but it’s worth noting that a feature like this will come to fruition any time soon.
All-in-all, these reportedly leaked features do not hold much compared to what previous iterations of Android have offered. The first two features already seem like features that can be installed through updating the Google Maps or GBoard apps, so it doesn’t seem like the OS is needed to have these features placed in. It should all be taken with a little salt however, since these are just speculations, currently, and we’ll know for sure what Android 8.0 will be called and what features it will hold, come May 17 2017 during the I/O Conference by Google.